Margaret May (McPherson, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Minister for Transport and Regional Services. Would the minister advise the House of measures that the government has taken to improve Queensland’s road network?

Warren Truss (Wide Bay, National Party, Minister for Transport and Regional Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I know that the honourable member for McPherson and, for that matter, the honourable member for Moncrieff will be delighted with the news that at long last the Tugun bypass will be built. The Tugun bypass project has been in the waiting for years. It is a significant and, I acknowledge, a difficult construction project, which crosses state borders and passes through airport land and significant environmental areas, but, when completed, it will unite around half a million people across the New South Wales-Queensland border in the fast-growing areas around the Gold Coast and the northern parts of New South Wales. Even though this particular project is not a part of the national highway network, the Australian government will provide $120 million towards this 7.5-kilometre project and will help to ensure that the project is able to achieve its objectives of providing much better traffic through those fast-growing areas on the Gold Coast.

Last week the Australian government approved the environmental impact statement and the major development plan for the Gold Coast airport, which clears the way for the project to commence. The road will pass under the extension of the Gold Coast airport, and significant work will be required to ameliorate environmental issues. It is one of the most complex assessments that the Department of the Environment and Heritage has undertaken for a very long time, but it now gives the opportunity for this really important project to proceed and to get rid of some of those appalling bottlenecks that travellers through the Gold Coast have had to endure for quite some time.

The Queensland government has complained that it does not get enough money from the Australian government for roads. It is overlooking the fact that an 81 per cent increase in construction funding has been provided to Queensland under AusLink and that AusLink funding has enabled projects like the Tugan bypass to proceed. Queensland will receive $1,864 million for road funding under AusLink in the period 2004 to 2008-09, including $1½ billion for construction. This is an important example of the government getting on with the job of delivering the road network that the fast-growing parts of south-east Queensland so urgently need.